If Allison Williams looks ever so vaguely familiar, it might be because you saw her slow-jam cover of Ke$ha’s "Tik Tok," which she recorded while she was an undergrad at Yale (and which got five million views on YouTube). Or you might remember her playing Kate Middleton in Funny or Die’s sketch about the royal wedding. ("I had no idea he was so fucking bald," she says to the camera, Prince William sitting forlornly by her side.) Or possibly her sultry remix of the Mad Men theme song, set to Nat King Cole lyrics, which earned the 23-year-old actress her first major role as an uptight Brooklynite on Girls, HBO’s startlingly sex-soaked, Judd Apatow-produced new comedy series about four college grads struggling to get by in New York. But there is another explanation: Williams looks ever so vaguely like her father, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams. Here, the sexier Williams speaks.

GQ: Will men watch this show?

** Allison Williams: **Um, it’s called Girls.

GQ: OK, but it’s not set at Hooters. They might be afraid it’s Sex and the City: Brooklyn.

** Allison Williams: **A lot of guys I know loved Sex and the City. They’ll take it to their grave, but they watched every episode of it. Occasionally they’ll scare you with a reference to Mr. Big.

GQ: The show is very explicit—and dark. You masturbate against a door at a party. Are you nervous about people seeing that?

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** Allison Williams: **I’d be worried about myself as a human if I hadn’t been nervous. But I’m playing a character and I found that very reassuring.

GQ: What are you worried about your parents seeing?

** Allison Williams: **They know I’m acting. And they’re not the ones that parented that girl. That said, there are gonna be watching-through-your-fingers moments. I’ll warn them about everything.

GQ: Your character has a boyfriend she doesn’t respect. She jokes that he has a vagina.

** Allison Williams: **She hasn’t been able to have that honest conversation with herself about the future of their relationship. And she’s too insecure to imagine living without him.

GQ: When it comes to nudity, Lena Dunham—the creator and star—really goes for it.

** Allison Williams: **I was only allowed only to watch public television until I was 12 years old. I would come home from friends’s houses with a list of demands. "OK, We have all the wrong cereals. You guys are asleep on the job." But there was a seminal moment where my dad and I watched Animal House together.

GQ: Did you always want to be an actress?

** Allison Williams: **I started out really into musical theater. So you can imagine I was super popular. I wasn’t awkward looking at all.

GQ: When did your awkward phase end?

** Allison Williams: **In my mind, it ended the day my braces came off. Everything was in slow motion and I was beautifully lit.

GQ: What did you think of your father hosting SNL?

** Allison Williams: **I didn’t know if it was a good idea. I’m very protective of his credibility. He’s worked so hard to establish it. But it was great.

GQ: He’s a NASCAR fan. Did you grow up at the racetrack?

** Allison Williams: **I’ve been to Talladega and Daytona. The bumper stickers on my car are as follows: There is a Yale bumper sticker, there is a first Cavalry from the Army—the group my dad was embedded with. And then there’s two Dale Earnhardt stickers. It’s about the most confusing back-of-car one can imagine.

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